1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to restaurants and cocktail lounges and more particularly to a console which includes both a lamp and telephone for use at tables in restaurants and cocktail lounges.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,793 issued to the present inventor on Feb. 21, 1978 for a Restaurant Dining System ("793 Patent"). It discloses a restaurant dining system comprising dining and bar areas, a cocktail lounge, a kitchen and a raised order-taking post separate from the dining and bar areas. The order-taking post facilitates the prompt delivery of food and drink orders taken by telephone from patrons in the dining area and cocktail lounge in visual communication with the order-taking person. That patent in FIG. 5 discloses a table on which a telephone is positioned with a speaker mounted beneath the table top. The patrons use the telephone to communicate their orders to persons in the order-taking post. The speaker permits music to be played at the table. The same disclosure is in U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,388 issued to the present inventor on Dec. 22, 1981 for a Restaurant Entertainment System, particularly for a combined piano bar-bandstand which straddles the bar area and dance floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,821 issued to the present inventor on May 21, 1985 for a Restaurant Telephone Entertainment System ("821 Patent"). It discloses a combined telephone-speaker-lamp console for use on tables in a restaurant having a telephone ordering system of the type disclosed in the 793 Patent. A telephone switch board permits the feeding of a telephone conversation into the audio amplifier which drives the console speakers so that a conversation on other telephones can be played on the speakers. The lamp blinks in response to the telephone ringing current fed to the associated telephone. Each console has a cable of sufficient length to extend via a hole in the table supporting the console through a pedestal and past the pedestal's base to be plugged into the central cable system and then retracted beneath the base. The same disclosure including the retraction feature is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,486 issued to the present inventor on Sept. 15, 1987 for a Combined Telephone-Table System. Both patents disclose in FIGS. 1-3 a combined telephone-lamp-speaker console in which the speaker is enclosed in or beneath a lantern lamp, the telephone is mounted adjacent the lantern lamp and the console is supported directly on the table.
A Combined Lamp and Telephone Stand is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 180,105 issued on Apr. 16, 1957. A conventional table lamp has a frame extension which rests on the table and is adapted to support a telephone. A telephone and lamp are shown together on the top of a table in U.S. Pat. No. 2,960,576 issued Nov. 15, 1960 for a Signal-Controlled Actuator for Telephones and the Like. U.S. Pat. No. 1,841,618 issued Jan. 19, 1932 discloses a floor lamp which includes a speaker, as does U.S. Pat. No. 2,559,045 which issued July 3, 1951 for a Combined Lighting Device and Radio Receiver Or Loud Speaker. A Patio Light and Speaker Combination is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,952. A floor lamp with a telephone which extends over a table is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,765,699. None of these devices is of practical use for the Restaurant Dining System disclosed in the present inventor's 793 Patent.
The combined telephone-lamp-speaker lantern console disclosed in the present inventor's 821 Patent has a large base and thus occupies a relatively large portion of the table on which it stands, especially on tables for two persons. That can leave insufficient room for plates. Moreover, if the lantern were mounted on a post off the table its height would block a person's view of another person across the table. Further, most of the components of the 821 Patent console are readily subject to vandalism and theft. And it does not include a color television display.